Lone star Nitin makes a frantic
effort to keep things going. He ends up being the tragic yet heroic character
of Casabianca: the boy stood on the bringing deck. The 104 crime
thriller is filled with cardboard characters who are painted black or white to
deliver stances and work tediously towards a climax that simply fails to take
off. The film starts off with glass splinters all over the place plod oozing
and the perennial chase. Tired of such tales you lie back into the comfort of
your chair to wake up to some well choreographed songs, some blood spill all
over and walk out tired after the cliché filled script lets go of you in less
than two hours. For this you are thankful to the filmmaker and are hopeful that
the trend is beginning. It happens a week after Teja went to town talking how
length does not matter. Here it is a virtue, albeit nearly the only.
After the blood splashing welcome, we are taken back by a few months when
Kalyan (Nitin) is with friend (Satyam Rajesh), brother in law (Harsha) and
sister (Surekha Vani). The guy refuses to take up any job and surely finds the
errands a courier boy has to run to be demeaning. However, a chanced encounter
lands him in a situation where he delivers a packet to Kavya (Yami Gautam) and
since then decides that it is the best job that gives him an alibi to meet his
lady love. Parallel is the story of Bad guy and Senior Doctor (Ashutosh Rana)
who is part of a global racket that chooses expectant mothers in the first
trimester to do some kind of research on foetal stem cells. They drug victims
and then carry out the research sureptiously. There is also a social worker
Satyamurthy (Nassar) who is busy addressing the people at road side gatherings
on how the system should be corrected.
The bluff is called when an employee Manikyam (Sivanarayan Narripede) at the
local hospital accidentally comes to know of the racket and decides to play the
whistle blower. Hell knoweth no fury than a villain exposed, so Big Bad Doc with
side-kick Doc (Ravi Prakash) decide to do away with all and sundry who know
about the brewing research. Manikyam puts all the records in a cover and
decides to courier it to Satyamurthy. Stalking the packet are the goons
employed who run amuck in the city to ensure that the packet does not reach its
target. Blissfully unaware of what he is carrying Kalyan who has a date with
Kavya is on the wrong track with the right muscle. So as mayhem rules the road
and the script, we head towards a tepid finale that is symbolic of the film,
its script, urgency, commitment etc.
Yami Gautam as the sales girl at the Khadi bhandar does not even spend time to
ensure her costumes go with the character. This is to state the first of her
multiple short comings. Her spirit must be envied and encouraged. Surely she
will see the film and take some far reaching decisions. We have actors like
late Telangana Shakuntala (pointing to how much the film is dated!) and
Saptagiri making cameo appearances and trying hard to tickle.
The film surely belongs to Nitin. One gets the feel that he signed the film
before Gundajari, unless he is on a suicidal path. He does his best. He is his
usual sincere energetic self-carrying all the ingredients required of a
mainstream hero. The script asks for more. Unfortunately, the courier boy
delivers but the package is not worth receiving.
Rating: 2 stars.
+ Nitin and length of the film.
– Lacking in conviction.
L. Ravichander.